


Mer-der

by Callie_Girl



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, M/M, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-01 06:16:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18794641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callie_Girl/pseuds/Callie_Girl
Summary: Just read the first chapter. There's too much to explain.





	1. explain

Okay, so;

Deceit; Demi. She’s a deep-water mermaid who was badly injured after an encounter with humans. Her eyes glow when someone around her is lying.

Virgil; Vada. Another deep-water mermaid. She met Demi after Demi was injured. Vada is incredibly anxious and extremely sensitive to the light. She’s also very curious.

Logan. He’s a freshwater merman who was separated from his family during a shark attack. He’s incredibly intelligent but shies away from emotion in fear of getting attached and losing a second family.

Roman was originally from the Bermuda Triangle, which is where he and Logan met Demi and Vada. Roman is a bit arrogant. He saw his mate and child slaughtered by a Megalodon shark.

Patton is a saltwater merman from off the coast of Florida He met Roman and Logan there, and stayed with their small group. He is very sweet, but a bit insecure. 

Thomas is a marine biologist. He will come up later.


	2. trapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vada is trapped in a shipwreck, and two new people come to her aid.

Demi swam around anxiously, trying to find a way to release her mate from the net in the shipwreck. “Vada, please-”

Vada kept screaming, trying desperately to free herself. She’d been trapped like this for two days before Demi found her, and the sun was setting on the third. She was, quite frankly, scared out of her wits. Demi was trying her best, but she couldn’t find out how to release Vada from the net without the boulder that pinned the net in place falling and crushing her lover. She needed a blade. But where the hell could she get a blade that wasn’t rusted over?

And then, she had another problem. And that problem was two mermen who swam into the shipwreck.

Demi snarled, her damaged fins flaring up and glowing yellow. Then she noticed the red-skinned one had a double-edged blade.

Oh god. They were going to die. She and Vada were dead.

The two swam closer, and Demi snarled again, trying to make herself as much of a threat as possible. The blue one studied her, motioning for his friend to stop.

“You will not harm her!” Demi roared.

“We do not intend to.” The blue one tried. Demi snarled again, her small hands balling into fists.

“You are lying!” she screeched, charging at him. His dark blue eyes widened, but he managed to keep her nails from slicing through his throat, restraining her hands as his friend swam over to Vada. Demi started to fight harder, biting at him, her sharp teeth sinking into his arms multiple times. He just glared at her as if she were a slightly annoying clownfish as she swore at him.

Suddenly, another body shot at her, breaking her out of the blue merman’s grip. She almost scratched the eyes of that one out, but then she recognized the deep purple eyes of Vada.

She pulled her lover behind her, examining the cut net, then the two mermen. Her teeth were still bared, stained with the blood of the blue man, but neither seemed very scared. Vada whimpered, and Demi cast one more glare at the others before tending to her girlfriend. Vada was nursing a bunch of shallow cuts on her hands and arms, black blood leaking into the water. “Are you okay?”

“Yes…” Demi kissed Vadas forehead, then turned to the two mermen.

“You saved her. Why?”

The blue one spoke. “We heard her distress, and only just got here after you. When it became clear you had no way to free her, we decided to help.”

The red one laughed. “We never thought you would attack him.”

Demi winced at the bleeding wounds she’d left. “My apologies. I misunderstood your intentions.”

“It’s alright. I am Logan, and my friend is Roman.” Roman waved when he was introduced.

“My name is Demi, and my mate is Vada. You have our thanks.”

“We would like to invite you to our home. The third of our band is well-versed in medical assistance, and we don’t want Vada’s wounds to become infected.”

Demi glanced At Vada, checking with her before giving an answer. “That would be acceptable.”

Logan smiled. “Good. We should leave before the sharks come.”

With that, the four acquaintances swam off to try and find shelter before night fell.


	3. Capture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vada went exploring, and everything went wrong

After the last fiasco, Demi didn't trust Vada to explore on her own. Thus, she stayed nearby as the dark-skinned mermaid examined the cargo shipwreck. She smiled slightly, watching the curiosity on Vadas' face as she swam around.

Suddenly, both of them heard a distressed, high-pitched keen. They swam to find the source and soon found it.

A distressed pod of dolphins was flurrying around, trying to find out how to free a calf from an old cage. Demi quickly swam over, quickly trying to dislodge the cage from the sand. The baby had swum in through a hole in the side, but couldn't move around enough to get out.

Part of the reason she hated humans.

She and Vada quickly dug through the sand, then Demi ripped a wall of the cage off, freeing the baby dolphin. Another chittered happily as they swam away. Demi considered what remained of the cage. What should she do?

Suddenly, a new cage appeared, shooting up from the sand on locking around her. She shrieked in surprise, trying to rip through the thick bars.

Then, it began to rise.

"Go get the others!" Demi ordered. Vada paused for a few moments, then swam away quickly. Demi kept trying to break out, but soon the cage broke the surface of the water.

"My God, we actually caught one." There was a man on the boat. Demi snarled at him so loudly it was almost a shriek. "Get her back to the research facility! Joan's gonna flip!"


	4. hec c c k k que

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "How do you reckon she got those scars?"
> 
> Demi squinted slightly, swimming up to the glass.
> 
> Then, she pointed at them.

Everyone in the observatory was wearing noise-cancelling headphones to keep their sanity. The mermaid had been screaming at them from the moment she arrived and had managed to scratch the glass several times. As Thomas and Joan came in, she gave up on the endless screaming, instead shouting, "LET ME OUT OF HERE, YOU BASTARDS!"

Thomas looked at Joan. "Dude... she speaks English!"

Joan looked back at the mermaid, and she made a rude gesture. "Yeah, she sure does. How old do you reckon she is?"

"Hmm... fifteen, seventeen at most. Hard to tell with all those scars." the scars in question were a green spiderweb that covered most of her left torso, and the same side of her face.

"How do you reckon she got those scars?"

Demi squinted slightly, swimming up to the glass, making sure the two scientists could see her damaged fins, and then slowly pointed at them. Thomas tilted his head. "You've had another encounter with scientists?"

She nodded bitterly, not in the mood for speech. She remembered being strapped down to a gurney, how scalpels cut along the outline of every shimmering gold scale, removing them torturously slow. They'd seem delighted to spill her dark, black blood, flecked with gold... what were these two going to do to her?

She started to swim around frantically, even going as far as to ram her body into the glass. But it could withstand a shot from an SMG, so a tiny mermaid couldn't do much against it.

Joan whispered what everyone was thinking. "She's terrified."

 

Patton, Logan, Roman and Vada were in a similar state. Patton had spent five minutes calming down the hysterical Vada, and by the time they'd gotten back to where the cage had been, the boat was long gone. Vada started to swim around in a panic, calling for her mate, as if she could answer.

Vada remembered the aftermath of the last time Demi had been captured by humans. She'd found her, half-conscious, at the sea floor, her blood staining the water around her... she'd never known any creature could be so cruel as to do that to an innocent mermaid.

What would Vada find the next time she saw her mate? A corpse?

Roman gripped her shoulders, forcing her out of her head. "Vada, we have to go. I know someone who can help."

Vada tilted her head. "Who?" 

"Have you ever heard of the Sulwe mermaid?"

 

In a cave, hundreds of miles away, two blind, glowing eyes shot open, illuminating the darkness.

Something was terribly wrong.


	5. 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Demi and Thomas bond, and the others seek out the help of Remi.

Thomas was pulling another late night, watching the live signs on the computer. From what he could tell, this mermaids heartbeat was at least five times faster than that of a human, and apparently, metal detectors found a high amount of gold in her body. Thomas thought it was really cool, actually. He was observing her brain activity when her heartbeat spiked. 

He got up, walking to the observatory. It was kind of eerie, only illuminated by the moonlight that shone through the water of the tank. He glanced around said tank, trying to see the mermaid.

Suddenly, there was a bright flash of yellow, and he saw her curled up in one of the shadows, her fins glowing. Fascinating...

She whined quietly, her expression one of horror.

Nightmare.

Thomas knocked on the glass, trying to wake her up. She wouldn't.

He ran up to the observatory above the tank, quickly getting into scuba gear, then dropping into the tank. About halfway to the mermaid, he realized that this might not be a good idea, but... yolo.

The second he put his hand on her shoulder, her hand shot up, grabbing him by the neck. The two stared at each other for a full minute, then she let him go, glaring at him and motioning for him to go back up. She followed him, watching as he removed the oxygen mask. "Why?"

"Huh?" Thomas kicked off the scuba fins, trying to figure out what she was asking.

"Why did you wake me?"

"Well... you looked like you were having a nightmare-"

"I was. This still does not answer my question."

"Well, I didn't want... um, how do I phrase this?"

"You did not wish for me to have nightmare?" her head tilted, eyes scanning him curiously.

"Yeah..."

"But why?"

"I... I don't like people to suffer."

Her head tilted the other way, reminding him of a curious puppy. "But I am not a people."

"Y... you're sentient, so you are a people. Besides, I've had nightmares I wished someone would've woken me up from." He paused, thinking. "What was yours about?"

She was silent for a few moments, then whispered,"My mate, Vada. She was tied to a... what you call it? Medical bed?"

"Gurney."

"She was tied to one of those and they were hurting her and I could do nothing!"

"You have a mate?"

"Yes."

Thomas blinked. "How old are you?"

"I am fourteen years old. However, mermaids reach maturity faster than humans." she paused. "Do you have a mate?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Nineteen is a bit young to take a mate for humans." he couldn't help but feel like she was studying him more than he was her.

"You are a peculiar human, yes?"

"... A bit, I guess."

"Ah." she nodded as if it answered some unspoken question.

"Why?"

"You are kind."

"Well... so I've been told. But a lot of humans are kind."

She frowned. Her eyes did not heat up or glow, which signalled a lie... but... "I do not understand."

"Well... some humans are nice."

"But... the humans I last met were cruel. They... removed?... my scales."

"Scales?"

She nodded sadly. "I used to have golden scales on my body," she gestured to the green scars. "Very pretty. And my fins... they used to be tipped in gold as well. But no more." She sighed, running her finger over the rugged tip of her hip fins. "No more."

 

Vada's eyes were perfectly suited for the pitch black waters of the lowest zone of the ocean, and she found some luminescent fish for the others to use. Roman led them through the murky depths, leading them to a large, foreboding cave at the sea floor. Vada hung back a bit as they made their way into it. This was the perfect place for an evil creature to lurk.

"Hello." They all screamed, spinning to where the low voice had come from, Roman drawing his blade. Slowly, two white, glowing eyes opened, and white lips glowed at the merperson spoke again. "Why are you here?"

Roman sighed. "Drop the act, Remi. It's me."

The cave lit up, revealing a mermaid with pitch black skin. She smiled. "Hey, gurls! Want Starbies?"

Remi swam over to them, handing each a beverage. She looked Vada up and down. "Gurl, you're new. Who's you?"

"V-v-v-Vada."

"Well, V-Vada, you may know me by my more colourful moniker; the Sulwe mermaid." Vada's eyes widened. "Gurl, you better not be bowing. I hate it when people do that."

"But... I thought the Sulwe mermaid was blind?"

"I is." The fins on Remi's back, which almost looked like wings, puffed out proudly. "And then I saved the world. Volcanoes ain't standing a chance!"

"Good, because what we need help with is a great deal more underwhelming than supervolcanoes." Logan bought them all back to the topic. "One of our friends has been taken by humans. Can you help us?"

Remi considered. "Sure. Why not?"


	6. heck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Demi was actually starting to be okay with Thomas. Then some head scientists came, and things escalate quickly.

Demi was beginning to be slightly okay with her containment. She got plenty of food, could sleep whenever she wanted, and only had to answer questions about herself. It wasn't the best way to live life, but it could be worse.

She was thinking over this as she swam laps in her tank, and heard the hydraulic door in the lab open. She swam up to the glass, expecting Thomas, or maybe Joan.

And then, nothing could possibly get worse.

She darted away from the glass, hiding behind the coral and trying to keep her fins from glowing in anxiety. It was the bad humans. The ones who'd captured her the last time.

Thomas spoke, and she relaxed a bit. "So, this is where we currently have the... the mermaid is missing."

One of the researchers, Talyn, spoke up. "She's hiding."

"Oh. I guess she's just not feeling very social today. Demi, can you come out?"

"No!" She shouted.

The bad man spoke up. "You named it?"

She could practically feel Thomas' confidence deflate. "No. She already had a name when we acquired her." He moved closer to the glass. "She's normally a lot more chatty than this."

Talyn giggled. "What we can't get her to do is shut up."

"Well, we'll take her to a different facility. I'll oversee the study personally."

Thomas choked. "What?!"

"You heard me. Prepare her for transport." Yeah, no. She wasn't going to let that happen.

She swam out of hiding, grabbing a heavy rock and swimming up to the glass, then staring at the bad guy passive aggressively before slamming the rock against the already damaged glass. 

"Demi!" Thomas yelped.

She narrowed her yellow eyes. "Not going with him. Bad man. I will break out and kill all of humanity."

Joan sniggered.

"I will self-delete." Demi threatened. She actually wouldn't, but threats were fun. Her eyes never lit up when SHE lied, so...

The bad man narrowed his eyes at her. "No, you won't." Then, to Thomas, he snapped, "Prepare her for transport."

Thomas looked at Demi apologetically, then nodded.

 

Thomas looked at the remains of the twentieth net, then at Demi, who was across the tank and smirking at them. Then, he noticed something.

"Hey, Doctor Zedo, how'd you get that ring?" the ring in question was gold, in place of a gem was a golden parallelogram.

That exactly matched the deeper scars on Demi's skin.

"Oh, this old thing? It was a reward for a deep-sea project."

Thomas nodded, glancing between Demi's jagged, sharp teeth, then the jagged scar on Zedos arm. "What about the scar?"

"A small sand shark."

"Oh really?" Thomas was being passive aggressive now.

"Yep."

Thomas folded his arms over his chest. "You're a terrible liar. A sand shark has a different jaw shape than that, and its teeth aren't that uneven. No... those marks are clearly from something humanoid. And they match Demi's teeth. Exactly."

All of the other scientists stared.

"And the funny thing about that ring? Matches the scales Demi used to have. The ones that were removed by a scientist. Inhumanely. Without anaesthetics, and one by one."

The doctor scoffed. "What're you implying? That I was the one who harmed this specimen two years ago?"

Joan smirked. "No one ever said /when/ she was captured."

Ooh, EXPOSED!

 

Thomas smiled at Demi. She'd helped them lock up a corrupt scientist, and he'd decided to let her go as a reward. She currently sat at the edge of the ship, saying her goodbyes. There was a lot that they could learn about her.

But she had a mate to go back to.

She jumped off of the ship with a cheerful shout, quickly disappearing into the murky depths.

She swam down to the shipwreck where she'd last seen Vada, intending to go back to where Logan, Roman, and Patton lived, where Vada should be.

Then, someone touched her shoulder.


	7. 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How to defend yourself, a guide by Demi;  
> 1; Bite first, ask questions later

She didn't hesitate. Her teeth sank into the arm of whoever had her. It was just a warning nip, but it was enough to draw blood.

Blood that tasted very familiar.

Logan?

He sighed, examining the new wound. "We really must stop meeting link this."

Demi put her hands on her hips. "You need to stop scaring me."

Suddenly, there was a screech of joy. A purple blur slammed into Demi, wrapping strong arms around the scarred mermaid. Demi kissed Vadas forehead lovingly, enjoying the familiar feeling of her lover's thin body pressed against her own.

"I thought I lost you." Vada whispered.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily."

They stayed like that for a few moments, until a new voice drawled, "I ship it."

Demi spun to see an unfamiliar mermaid, who had a jellyfish-like tendril wrapped around her neck like a white boa, and Demi bared her teeth on reflex.

Remi sighed. "Well, it's not the best reaction, but at least she isn't /bowing/."

"Who are you?"

"Call me Remi. I saved ya."

Demi tilted her head, lacking eyelids and therefore unable to blink. "Huh?"

"Well, I do admit, Thomas is a brilliant gurl. But even he couldn't quite connect the dots. I connected them for him. Then, he still wanted to keep you in captivity, but I gave him a little nudge in a different direction. I woulda just tellied you out, but the building was shielded." Remi ran her hand over the short, white fin on her bed. "Somehow. Anyway, ya want a Starbie?"

Demi frowned, tilting her head. "A what?"

"Ooh, girl, let me tell you..." As Remi started to rant, Demi hugged Vada closely, joining the others as they started to swim home.


End file.
